1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for controlling or attracting insects and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for providing a scatter surface and pumping radiation to generate coherent or semi-coherent radiation frequencies to control or attract insects.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Insects such as fleas, mosquitos, moths, etc. are undesirable because they are bothersome, destroy property, and often pose health risks. Devices and methods for trapping, killing, and disposing of insects are well known in the art. These devices and methods have taken many forms and include, for example, fly paper, electric insect killers that kill by electrocution, and chemical pesticides. Conventional devices and methods have many shortcomings. For example, fly paper and electric insect killers are both ineffective at attracting insects, and as such, are only marginally effective (approximately 5-10% ) for eliminating insects within a given area. Chemical pesticides are dangerous to both the human population and the environment as a whole. Further, chemical pesticides are also ineffective at attracting insects. It has long been known that insects are attracted to specific molecules of sex and host plant attractants. For example, Dr. Philip S. Callahan (hereinafter Applicant) demonstrated conclusively in 1957 that night flying moths are not attracted to visible light but rather to the infrared scatter frequencies from scents of plants in the air stimulated by the visible light from a low intensity light source. Callahan, "Oviposition Response to the Imago of the Corn Earworm Heliothis Zea (Boddie), to Various Wave Lengths of Light," Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Vol. 50, No. 5, September 1957. A summary of scatter radiation can be found in Fabelinskii, Molecular Scattering of Light, translated by Robert T. Beyer, Department of Physics, Brown University, Plenum Press, New York, 1968.
In a series of articles in the mid 1960's, Applicant demonstrated that the antennae of insects act as photonic, open resonator waveguides to collect and transmit infrared frequencies. See Callahan, "A High Frequency Dielectric Waveguide on the Antenna of Night-Flying Moths (Saturnidae)," Applied Optics, Vol. 7, page 1425, August 1963; Callahan, "Intermediate and Far Infrared Sensing of Nocturnal Insects, Part II, The Compound Eye of the Corn Earworm, Heliothis zea, and Other Moths as a Mosaic Optic-electromagnetic Thermal Radiometer," Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 58, Number 5, pp. 746-756, September 1965; and Callahan, "Insect Molecular Bioelectronics: A Theoretical and Experimental Study of Insect Sensillae as Tubular Waveguides, with Particular Emphasis on Their Dielectric and Thermoelectric Properties," Miscellaneous Publications of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 5, Number 7, page 315-347, June 1967.
In 1968, Applicant demonstrated the attractance of the mosquito Aedes aegypti to human vapor pumped by near infrared radiation in a totally dark environment. See Mangum et al., "Attractance of Near-Infrared Radiation to Aedes aegypti," Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 61, Number 1, pp. 36-37, February 1968. This work with insect antennas is described in detail in Callahan, "Insect Antenna with Special Reference to the Mechanism of Scent Detection and the Evolution of the Sensilla," Int. J. Insect Morphol. & Embryol, 4(5):381-430 (1975).
In 1977, Applicant demonstrated that attractance of night flying moths to candles is not due to the insect's eye and the candlelight, but is instead due to the insect's dielectric antenna and candle water-vapor infrared emissions to which the insect's antenna is tuned. See Philip S. Callahan, "Moth and candle: the candle flame as a sexual mimic of the coded infrared wavelengths from a moth sex scent (pheromone)", Applied Optics, Vol. 16, page 3089, December 1977, and Philip S. Callahan, "Trapping modulation of the far infrared (17- .mu.m region) emission from the cabbage looper moth pheromone (sex cent)," Applied Optics, Vol 16, page 3098, December 1977.
For certain insect species, specific attractants (such as "pheromones," which are insect produced volatile compounds) have been chemically identified and synthesized. The isolation of sex and host plant attractant molecules has progressed steadily over the past few decades. Attractants have been utilized in various conventional traps but with poor results since these traps dissipate all of their (pheromone) scent in the air and in only a few days are useless.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,785 to Callahan, which is incorporated by reference herein, Applicant described a system for vibrating a gold coated needle in a molecular scent vapor contained in an enclosed chamber in order to stimulate and emit narrow band maser-like energy from an infrared transmitting window for control of insects. This system, although providing advantages over other conventional solutions, was frequently ineffective because it failed to produce maser-like frequencies that closely mimicked the frequencies produced by the insect being controlled.
There is therefore a need for a device and method that can attract and/or control insects within a specified region, is harmless to the human population, and is relatively inexpensive and easy to operate.